🔗 Share this article

Over the weekend, Battlefield Studios launched a new game mode called Relaxed Breakthrough. In essence, this option mirrors the regular Breakthrough format but features several key changes:

• Every squad has just 8 human participants, with the remaining made up of 32 bots.
• Actions performed by human gamers grant complete experience points, while AI activities offer lower rewards.
• Only two maps are available: Cairo Siege and Empire State.
• Elements like Dogtags, accolades, and career stat updates have been turned off.

In short, this mode lives up to its title: it's a casual version of Breakthrough. On the surface, you might think there's nothing wrong, since it provides more options for players seeking different methods to enjoy the game. However, if video games has shown one thing, it is that not everyone will be happy. In other words, a lot of Battlefield 6 players are upset.

Community Reactions: Anger to Praise

"Gamers prefer human opponents. Avoid making the mistakes of your competitors," reads one reply to the mode reveal. "Truly disappointing idea," comments another. At the same time, in community forums, a player notes, "I have no idea where we are going with this game," while someone else lists all the issues they consider to be broken in the game: "Resolve glitches, fix drone glitch, fix IVF rockets, adjust aiming after sprinting, improve hit detection. We do not require this bot mode."

On the other hand, for every complaint, there are players sharing how much they're liking the new mode. "It's enjoyable to practice, real players prevent it from being a complete grind but it's very relaxed," reads a forum post. "This subreddit doesn't understand that there are gamers who have lives and don't play this game all the time. Let them find a middle ground," states a different comment. A response via social media explains that as they're "a battledad with busy schedules, this is great for me," while someone else praises the mode for "not being overcompetitive."

Constructive Criticisms and Community Input

All that said, there are valid points to criticize Casual Breakthrough. Some users have highlighted that it will make wait times even longer for different playlists because of the sheer number of playlists currently available. Similarly, some areas already encounter mostly bots in the current modes. Additionally, it appears a little backwards that the mode does not begin without a minimum number of real players, even though it primarily centers on combat against bots.

Finally, a major grievances is that a previous feature was promised to offer complete rewards, even against bots, but that got canned when they attempted to remove XP farming from the system. Thus Casual Breakthrough seems like the community compromising halfway, according to forum feedback. A different user describes this mode as the devs "dropping the ball significantly, I had so much fun in the initial release, what prompted them to change it?"

Looking Ahead: Adjustments Be Made?

Should the development team has demonstrated something to date with Battlefield 6, it is that they're paying attention and responding to player input. Assignments being too difficult got fixed very quickly, as did the required Redsec challenges. It is likely that, if their data shows this recent mode isn't performing to their expectations, they will not hesitate to change it again.